


Par For the Course

by ClagJanetSMK



Series: The Sundance Stories [5]
Category: Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Genre: Adventure, Camping, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Science Projects, golf if you squint, magic bus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 14:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17768801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClagJanetSMK/pseuds/ClagJanetSMK
Summary: Amanda and a dangerous assault camper van. What could go wrong?





	Par For the Course

_Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin and bit of light humour._

* * *

 

"Stetson" Lee answered the phone almost absent-mindedly, caught up in the file he was studying, but his full attention snapped to the phone with a smile when he heard Amanda's voice.

"Um, Lee? I know this is a silly question because it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would do, but then again, I can't think of anyone else who would do such a thing without remembering to tell me it might be happening and if you don't know why it's there, I really have no idea where it came from – "

"A-man-da! What's the problem?" He couldn't help laughing down the phone. "What and where is this whatever you're asking about?"

"Well, someone just dropped a camper van in my driveway – "

Lee shot to his feet. "Oh my God, didn't anyone tell you it was coming? Fielder was supposed to make sure everything was in order before it arrived."

"Well no, no one did, but I thought I recognized Dave Duffy in that truck across the street watching the house, so I thought it was probably something to do with the Agency, but you know, I really didn't have a great explanation for my mother, so I just told her IFF was making a documentary on Great American road trips and that the producers needed a place to park the vehicle temporarily."

"That was quick thinking, Amanda, that's a perfect cover. Now, whatever you do, just don't go climbing around inside."

"Why not?" she asked. "It's not going to blow up or anything is it? Even the Agency wouldn't park something dangerous in the middle of suburbia, right?"

She was laughing when she asked and he winced slightly before answering.

"Well, it won't blow up if you don't touch anything, but it _is_ a fully operational assault vehicle prototype the Army is working on." He heard the sudden clatter of the phone being dropped and realized he was talking to dead air. "Amanda? AMANDA?" He could hear her shouting in the background and then, because he was straining to hear what she was saying, he almost dropped his own receiver when Dotty West's voice suddenly came down the phone line.

"Hello? Are you still there?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm still here," answered Lee weakly. "I was just talking with Amanda about the RV we parked there this morning and she suddenly disappeared."

"Oh. Is this Mr. Steadman?" Dotty's voice was suddenly very bright and interested and Lee wondered what story Amanda had been telling her mother about her new job.

"Ah yes, this is Lee Steadman. Is this Amanda's mother, Mrs. …uh…West?"

"Oh please, just call me Dotty." There was a pause before she asked in an interested tone, "Did you say your name was Lee?" He could hear the amusement in her voice but had no idea where it was coming from.

"Um, has Amanda gone far, Mrs. West?" asked Lee desperately.

"Dotty," she corrected him. "Oh no, not far, just out to the driveway. The boys are all over that van of yours – I think she's shooing them away from it. I'm not sure why – I mean, a Winnebago isn't exactly dangerous, is it?"

"Oh my God." Lee dropped back into his chair, running his hand over the back of his head. He tried to laugh it off. "No, they're not usually dangerous, Mrs. West, I mean Dotty, but this one has a lot of sensitive film equipment loaded in it. But perhaps you could have her call me back when she comes back inside? Thanks so much."

He hung up quickly and stared at the phone like it was a venomous snake. He was going to kill Fred Fielder if it was the last thing he did – hopefully before Amanda killed him first.

* * *

 

Amanda was standing in Billy's office, hands on her hips, and for once, she was not her usual sunny self, or at least Billy had never seen her like this. Lee paused in the doorway to enjoy the sight of Billy leaning forward trying to get a word in edgewise with Amanda in full rant.

"I mean, I don't know what you were thinking – parking an assault vehicle in my driveway or even in my neighborhood. I know you all think I'm just handy window dressing most of the time for whatever little scheme you have up your spy sleeves, but I am first and foremost a mother to two small boys, two small boys who I would rather not have blow up the neighborhood accidentally because someone decided to park a weapon at my house! Without telling me! Without any warning at all! I had to call Lee and check that it even belonged to you! Do you know how close you came to having World War III break out in Arlington? How would you have explained that?"

Billy tried again to explain when she finally ran out of breath. "Mrs. King, Amanda, I'm really sorry – you should have been told and heads will roll for the people who were supposed to tell you. But really it isn't so very dangerous to have it there – I mean, your boys didn't come to any harm, or cause any, did they?"

Amanda took a deep breath and glared at her boss. "That is not the point. I only barely kept them from away from it because I happened to call Lee. Phillip had Jamie boosted most of the way in one of the windows when I got out there to stop them, no thanks to any of you. And then I had to explain why it was full of computer equipment instead of beds like a normal trailer-"

"They were trying to climb inside?" Billy interrupted her. "Why on earth would they do that?"

Amanda stared at him in disbelief. "Mr. Melrose," she asked in an overly calm tone, "I know you only have daughters, but are you trying to tell me you were never a ten-year-old boy? Or if that's too long ago for you to remember, that you can't imagine what **_he_** was like as a ten-year-old boy?" This last question was accompanied by her jerking a thumb over her shoulder at Lee, which surprised him since he hadn't realized she'd even been aware he was there.

Billy looked from Amanda to Lee and back again, and finally a look of panic came over his face as he realized why exactly Amanda was so upset and what a mess the Agency had almost landed itself in. "You're absolutely right, Amanda, it was an inexcusable mistake on our part. It was just that we were looking for somewhere to be able to hide it in plain sight and-"

"And it didn't occur to anyone to park it in a trailer sales lot? Or a campground?" Amanda asked with a raised brow. There was a moment of stupefied silence while Billy and Lee exchanged looks of disbelief that no one had actually thought of either of those ideas. Amanda rolled her eyes and sighed. "I can see that it didn't. Honestly, you spy people really over-think things sometimes. Well, what are you going to do with it now? Because I am not happy about it being in my driveway. Phillip got bored the moment he realized he wasn't going anywhere in it, but now Jamie wants to know all about the film computers and I don't have anything I can tell him."

"We're not going to put it anywhere," said Francine, ducking under Lee's arm and walking into the office.

"And why not?" asked Amanda huffily.

"Because it just got stolen. Duffy and Kilroy got hit with a nerve gas, and when they woke up it was gone."

"God's Teeth!" yelped Billy reaching for the phone to start a scramble.

Lee jumped out of the way as Amanda whirled and ran headlong into the bullpen and across the room to Lee's desk. "Amanda! Where are you going?" then blanched at her answer.

"Calling home to do a headcount. I wouldn't put it past either boy to be in there when it got stolen."

* * *

 

"So you're telling me, the only reason we still have Christine here is thanks to a ten-year-old boy?" Efraim was leaning back in a camp chair, long legs stretched out towards the campfire.

Lee finished adding wood to the fire and settled back into his own chair. "Yep. Even his disappointment that he wasn't going anywhere in it didn't stop Phillip from prying open the engine cover to see what made it tick. Lucky for us, he managed to nick a fuel line somewhere and the whole shebang came to a shuddering halt two miles from Amanda's house."

"That'll be quite the headline in the Post if it ever gets out," remarked Efraim. "Good thing he didn't get _inside_ the thing."

Lee shuddered. "You're not kidding. I'm still having nightmares about how many ways that could have gone wrong."

"Think it's any safer here in Greenbelt Park? It had to have been an inside job for anyone to know it was parked at Amanda's."

"Well, it's safer from small boys anyway," said a voice in the darkness, making them both jump. Amanda and Francine appeared out of the shadows, Francine carrying lawn chairs and Amanda two-handing a large picnic basket, which Lee leapt up to relieve her of.

"Brownies?" he asked in a hopeful tone, not even surprised that somehow the two women had tracked them down to this campground. He was still a little confused by this K-9 squad thing but he wasn't about to complain if there were brownies.

"Of course," said Amanda. "And everything you need for s'mores."

"What are s'mores anyway?" asked Lee in a confused tone. There was silence while the other three tried to decide if he was kidding.

"Um, didn't you ever go camping when you were little?" asked Amanda. She looked too late at Francine who was shaking her head at her, wide-eyed.

"Nope. Not unless you count being forced to tag along on a field maneuvers training session," answered Lee, still busy rooting through the picnic basket for the brownies

Amanda started to laugh before realizing he was serious. "Oh. Well then, you're in for a treat. Pass me that bag of marshmallows."

Lee leaned back and watched her expertly toast the marshmallow and then sandwich it between something she'd dug out of the bag before handing it to him. He studied it carefully by the light of the campfire before biting into it slowly. A look of pure bliss went across his face and the other three burst out laughing.

"Oh my God, where have these been all my life?" he addressed the sticky mess in his hands in a tone of wonder.

"Want some more?" laughed Amanda.

"Some more? Oh! I just got that," he muttered sheepishly. "Yes please."

Amanda passed over the bag of marshmallows and leaned back in her own chair. "So what's next on the agenda for this thing anyway? Never mind," she went on without pause, seeing the look on Lee's face. "Need to know, right? And I never need to know, do I?" She couldn't keep the slight tinge of annoyance out of her voice and she didn't miss the look the other three exchanged. "Do I at least get to know how they figured out it was at my house?"

"We don't know that part yet," admitted Lee, relieved he could answer that question at least, not that she looked happy at that reply. "But we've got people checking up on the congressman's staff as well because the number of people who knew was pretty small. We'll need to figure it out before we can take this thing on the road to A –a-a-a better hiding place," he finished lamely, while Amanda rolled her eyes. He tried to think of a way to distract her. "So Amanda, you're a fireside mom or whatever it is. Got any good campfire songs?"

Amanda stared at him through narrowed eyes. "Seriously? That's your distraction method?" She couldn't help starting to laugh at Lee's expression when she saw straight through him.

"Well, we've got a campfire and time to kill and I never learned any as a kid," he blustered. "Isn't it part of your den mother responsibilities to spread the knowledge? You know, like some old railroad song or something?"

Amanda heard a snort of laughter from Efraim beside her and turned to look at him, as he began to hum quietly. It took her a beat to recognize the intro and then, stifling her own laughter, she turned back to the fire and began to sing quietly, to Lee's obvious confusion.

_I get no kick from champagne,_

_Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,_

_So tell me, why should it be true,_

_That I get a kick out of you?_

* * *

 

The country club golf course seemed like an odd place to be trying to draw out survivalist terrorists, but Amanda had long since stopped trying to make sense of almost anything that happened in the world of spies. She slung her golf bag off her shoulder and pulled out the camera hanging off it in an effort to try and look her part as the photographer to Lee's reporter cover.

"Mr. Standish? Can I just get a shot of you getting ready to tee off? It will make a great action shot for our article." She ignored the exasperated look Lee gave her at interrupting his none-too-subtle questioning, then paused and lowered her camera as Standish prepared to swing his club. "Mr. Standish? Can I suggest something? You know, I've noticed your drives are curving to the left slightly and I think that if you were to just-." She dropped the camera back in her bag and strode forward to take Standish's hand and adjust it slightly on the club.

Lee stared at her in disbelief. One, she was only supposed to be – what had she called it? Window dressing?- and two, she was not supposed to be pretending to help terrorists with their golf swing as if she had any idea what she was doing.

"Okay, now drop your hip slightly, and try that." Amanda stepped back and nodded encouragingly at Standish. He looked equally unbelieving, but swung as she'd asked and both men stared in astonishment as his ball flew down the fairway and landed on the green, only a short putt from the hole. Standish gave a small whoop of triumph.

"There you go!" said Amanda with genuine delight in her voice. "Sometimes it's just the littlest things."

"Thank goodness someone finally got through to him about that," said a voice at Lee's elbow. He turned to find Mrs. Standish nodding happily at Amanda. "He's been paying a golf pro for six months to fix that – who knew all it took was a pretty girl telling him the exact same thing?" Lee was helpless to do anything as Mrs. Standish linked her arm with his and began to walk down the fairway towards her ball. He looked back to see Amanda and Standish in animated conversation several yards behind them. She looked up and gave him a small shooing motion to keep walking as she turned back and engaged Standish again.

"Oh God, I hope she knows what's she's doing," he thought, then turned back with an engaging smile to Mrs. Standish.

* * *

 

They were still arguing when they rounded the corner a few hours later and found Billy grinning at them as if he knew exactly what was going on.

"Billy! Would you please explain to Mrs. King that the Agency is not going to approve her being dropped into a possible nest of terrorists, especially after she almost ended up getting killed the last time?" Lee turned to glare at Amanda who looked quite willing to go toe-to-toe with him on the topic.

"Standish invited me to the Survivors retreat this weekend, and this is a perfect opportunity to investigate him on his own turf!"

"But now that we know that Holt was the leak, we don't need to infiltrate the actual camp!"

"But why wouldn't you seize the opportunity? He's probably got all that other stuff he hijacked hidden up wherever it is that his secret camp is and this way we'd find out exactly where that is!"

Billy spread his hands apologetically. "Mrs. King, I'm afraid Scarecrow is right. Internal Affairs would have my head if we got you involved with an organization like Standish's after your run-in with Glaser the other week."

"But I'm allowed to golf with him?" spluttered Amanda in disbelief. She turned to glare at Lee who had inadvertently made a small noise of victory at Billy's words.

"We were in a public place in a crowd and you weren't supposed to be golfing _with_ him, you were supposed to be-"

"Window dressing!" snapped Amanda. "I get it. Fine. I'll just toddle back to my dictation machine and leave you to it then."

"Amanda! That is not what I was going to say!" Lee started to argue, but she had already turned away and was striding down the hallway, rigid with annoyance. Lee turned to Billy who met his worried look with an apologetic expression and a shrug.

"We couldn't let her go with you, Scarecrow, not until the dust settles from last time."

"I know," Lee sighed. "And I'll never admit it to her that I'm even going, thanks to Mrs. Standish inviting me, but she's been like a lucky charm for me lately and I feel like I've annoyed the good luck gods now. Does that sound dumb?"

"I'm not about to argue with you. She definitely has a knack of being in the right place at the right time," answered Billy. He met Lee's grin with one of his own. "Especially when she's somewhere she's not supposed to be!"

"Amen to that," said Lee. "But I'm sure I can manage without her this time."

* * *

 

Deep in thought about Phillip's science project, Amanda never noticed the car following her the next day as she headed out on her errands. It followed her to the bookstore and the science supply shop, but it wasn't until she was coming out of the mineral shop, tucking the bag of assorted rocks and ore samples in her jacket pocket that she glanced over and noticed the car with a weasel-faced man parked beside hers in the alley parking lot.

"Excuse me ma'am?" The man got out of his car with all the appearance of someone simply looking for directions, but there was something about him that made the hair on the back of Amanda's neck stand up. She flattened herself against the car door, one hand on the handle and watched him warily. Despite her heightened level of alertness, when he held out a card and asked her if she knew the address, she hadn't been able to help glancing down at it, seeing too late his other hand with the chloroformed rag in it.

* * *

 

"Francine, please tell me that expression on your face is just because you've chipped a nail." Billy looked up as the frazzled blonde appeared at the doorway to his office.

"No, I'm here with more bad news," she answered, face fraught with anxiety. "DC Police just reported finding Amanda's car abandoned in an alley and her purse on the ground with a business card for the Survivors on top. It looks like they've taken her as a hostage."

Billy's jaw dropped open and then snapped shut as he rose to his feet with a resigned expression. "Let Lee know. I never should have doubted him when he said she always ends up in the middle of things. He's going to go ballistic when he hears this." He stopped and rubbed a hand over his face. "I want to see everything Beaman and the Analysis group has managed to dig up on Standish's compound and I want a detail on Amanda's house keeping an eye on her family."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

 

Lee had driven straight from the campground, parked the Vigilant on a small turnoff just up the road from Standish's compound and crept up to study it through binoculars. It had been several hours since Amanda's car had been found abandoned and although Beaman and his group had done stellar work in figuring out where she was likely being held, they still weren't sure, and they certainly had no idea why she'd been targeted. There was definitely a lot of activity in the compound and armed guards around the biggest building suggested that was the likeliest place to find her, if he could just figure out a way in. He had just decided that retreating to the Vigilant to call in backup support was the best option when he heard the telltale sound of a gun being cocked behind him. Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with Standish and a large goon with a rifle and raised his hands with a disgusted look.

"So, _Mr. Stetson_ ," smirked Standish, making it clear he'd known who Lee was all along, "Would you like to come down and join your boss?" Noting Lee's confused look, he went on, "Oh come on, you didn't really think I'd fall for that bait-and-switch thing on the golf course, did you?"

As Lee took in what Standish was saying, his heart sank and although he tried to keep his expression blank, he knew he'd failed when Standish's smile widened.

"Amanda isn't my boss" Lee answered tonelessly. "She's a girl from the steno pool I brought along to the golf course to help me with my cover. She's just a housewife with two small boys at home, nothing more."

"Oh I don't think so, Stetson. We picked her up this morning. Such odd habits for an agent – you'd almost think she really was just the housewife you describe from her errands today but her 'friendly interrogation' techniques are just too superior for that to be true." He gestured for Lee to start walking down the hill towards the compound.

"Actually, she really is just that – a very friendly person," Lee went on desperately, not moving. "She shouldn't be mixed up in this. She's just an innocent bystander."

"Ah well, if what you say is true, she'll just be the first of the innocents to fall in our path to survival."

That was really the first moment that Lee realized how far over the edge Standish had gone. Any sneaking suspicion that he was playing the survivalists for his own gain was vanquished by the gleam of madness Lee could see in his eyes. He turned and headed towards the complex, wondering how he was going to get Amanda out of this one.

He hadn't realized how worried he was until he was thrust into a storage room and narrowly avoided being hit with a wooden chair being swung at him from behind the door.

"Amanda! It's me!" he yelled, ducking just as she diverted her swing when she saw who it was.

"Oh Lee! I'm sorry!" She dropped the chair and threw her arms around him in a tight hug before stepping back and beginning to babble. "I know I'm not supposed to be here and I knew I should have been more suspicious of the man in the alley but you know, I just glanced down for a second and he had this rag and it was probably chloroform but I'm not sure because I never smelled chloroform before – does it even have a smell? – and the next thing I knew I was waking up here, and they were telling me how easy it was to kidnap an agent and it took me ages to figure out they meant _me_ and then of course, I tried to explain to them that I wasn't an agent, that I just work there and I really wasn't going to be able to help them at all, but I don't think they believed me because they just laughed and locked me in here. Are you alright? I didn't get you with the chair, did I?" She stopped abruptly, looking at him with a searching expression.

Lee couldn't help laughing. "Am I alright? That's what you're worried about?"

"Well, normally you've done that thing by now, that thing you do when I'm talking too much." She held up her hands in the surrender position to demonstrate. "And you haven't done that yet, you're just staring at me and normally when you show up, I get less nervous but when you're acting so weird, it just makes me more worried, like maybe they drugged you or something, and you don't look like you did when you were all hypnotized or whatever that was, but-," she squeaked as Lee seized her hands in his and squeezed them.

"I'm not drugged and I'm not hypnotized, I'm just relieved you're okay and it was nice to hear you rambling because then I know you really are fine." He grinned at her and she ducked her head and took a deep breath before smiling back.

"Okay, so we're both fine – now what do we do?" she asked.

"We strategize," he answered, now more serious. "Have you got anything we can use as a weapon?"

She began emptying her coat pockets, pulling out tissues, car keys, nail clippers, a column of small metal disks stuck together and a plastic bag full of rocks.

Lee picked that last item up and looked at her questioningly. She shrugged and explained, "Philip's science project. He's doing a presentation on the magnetic properties of different metals. That's what I was doing when they grabbed me."

"Well, unfortunately everything is a little small to be a weapon, unless you've got a slingshot hiding in there somewhere."

"Not today," she answered in a jokey tone. "If only I'd been kidnapped by terrorists yesterday, you'd have been in luck." Her joke fell flat when she couldn't help her voice breaking slightly.

"Hey, come here," said Lee, pulling her into a side hug. "We've been in worse situations, right? At least if we got out a window this time, we're on the ground floor." She couldn't help a small choke of laughter at that and he gave her another squeeze, marvelling at her bravery. "Now, the Agency knows where I am and if I miss a check-in, they'll be coming with the cavalry any time now, okay?"

She nodded, reassured by his certainty, and began tucking everything back into her pockets. She looked up with a sudden grin. "Francine isn't going to ride in on a white charger, is she? Because I'm allergic to horses, you know."

Lee looked out the window and groaned. "I don't think a white horse is going to cut it, now that they've got that." He gestured to the barred window where they could see the Vigilant being driven into the building beside theirs.

"Oh my gosh," said Amanda.

* * *

 

Standish seemed particularly pleased to have Amanda as an audience for the culmination of his plan. It had rapidly become apparent that he'd been on to them even before the day on the golf course, and that they'd been lured into his spider web because he wanted maximum coverage for what he was about to unleash. He'd explained it all to Amanda after he'd had them dragged out and sat them tied up inside the Vigilant.

"Sending a female agent was a new twist, but a charming one," he'd oozed at her. "And so useful because it will make a much bigger splash when there's such a pretty agent as the face of disaster."

"Mr. Standish, I'm not an agent. I'm just a secretary. I've only been working for the Agency for a month. No one is going to care about me." Amanda was babbling but it was clear Standish didn't believe her.

"Your partner there tried to convince me of that too, but the fact he showed up so quickly suggests otherwise, Mrs. King. I think you must be quite an important person actually."

"No, the Agency just doesn't want to look bad for letting a civilian get in harm's way," interrupted Lee, desperately. "She's of no value whatsoever as a hostage."

"Well, thank you so much," he heard Amanda murmur under her breath.

He glanced over at her apologetically, but pressed on trying to get through to Standish. "The Agency is going to be coming after you, for the Vigilant, not for us."

"Really? Well that puts an interesting spin on what I had planned," said Standish thoughtfully. "If you're sure no one is going to be looking for you, no one would notice if they didn't find… one of you." He leaned down and hauled Amanda to her feet as Lee struggled to get up. He ran a finger down her cheek and chuckled. "Would you like to live, Amanda? When the soft country is finally defeated by its own narcissism, we'll be looking to repopulate with worthy citizens."

Amanda flushed and turned her face into his cheek. "Oh Mr. Standish, that is such a flattering offer." Before an outraged Lee could interrupt, she bit down on Standish's hand hard, making him scream in agony. "But I don't think so."

A furious Standish shoved her away, causing her to fall with a bump back beside Lee, before leaning across to the console and pushing a series of buttons, setting a large timer on the wall into motion. "Well, enjoy your deaths. Unlike Noah, I don't think you'll survive the flood when these missiles hit Donohue Dam." He lifted his gun, smashing the radio to pieces before turning to walk out of the van with one last sneer.

Lee looked up desperately at the timer that was counting down from 20 minutes and began struggling against the ropes. "Amanda, I don't think we're going to get out of this one. You should have taken your chances with Standish and tried to escape later."

Amanda gave snort of disgust. "I'd rather take my chances with you than Jabba the Hutt, thanks." As she spoke, she began to wriggle around so that she was behind Lee's back. "Can you reach into my coat pocket?"

Lee stopped struggling and looked over his shoulder at her. "For what? Nail clippers and a bag of rocks aren't going to help us get out of these ropes in time."

"Not normally, but one of those rocks is an Indian flint arrowhead I picked up for Jamie as a present and it's probably sharp enough to cut them."

Lee groaned in satisfaction. "I love you."

"I know," replied Amanda with a laugh. "Now can you reach it or not?"

Lee wriggled around until he could get hold of the small bag and drag it out of her pocket. He twisted it until the contents emptied on the floor. They both began scrabbling though the rocks until Amanda gave a small crow of triumph. "Got it! Hold still!" She twisted until she felt the arrowhead rest against Lee's ropes then began sawing at them furiously. Lee stared the timer silently, watching as it ticked down the minutes.

The ropes finally gave way as it reached the fourteen minute mark. He swung around to undo Amanda's bonds, then pulled her to her feet as he stood up. "Do you think you can drive this thing? We need to get it somewhere where it can't take out the dam in case I can't get it shut down."

"Yeah, I think so," she stammered. "I mean, it's not that much bigger than the station wagon right? And a darn sight more indestructible."

Lee gave her an encouraging grin. "Atta girl! Let's get moving!"

Amanda ran for the driver's seat, while Lee began searching for a way to break into the missile control console. The van lurched into motion and Amanda began to speed her way down the dirt road out of the compound.

"Where are you going?" shouted Lee as he continued to pull open drawers and cupboards.

"There's a quarry a few miles down the road!" Amanda yelled back at him. "If we run out of time, the most damage it will do is a hole in a cliff!"

"Good thinking! Damn it, how can there be no weapons in an Army truck!" He found himself slammed to the floor when Amanda slammed on the brakes. "What happened? Why have we stopped?" He sat up when she didn't answer and peered out the windshield where Amanda was pointing at the army helicopter hovering directly in front of them.

"Oh my God. Amanda! Get out! Get out and start running as fast as you can before they start firing on us! I've got to keep trying to stop this thing from launching!"

Instead she ran back towards him. "Don't be ridiculous!" She stopped dead and slowly turned around. "You haven't been able to find anything?"

"No, and we've only two minutes left!"

Amanda stared at the counter and then her gaze dropped to the blinking computers. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I think I have something." She began pulling stuff out of her coat pockets and dropping it on the desk. "No, no, no, no, no – where did they go?" She dropped to the floor and began hunting around on the floor. Lee watched her desperately, glancing in between her, the timer and the helicopter that appeared to be slowly training its guns on them.

Finally she found whatever it was, and lunged towards the console. As he watched, she leaned forward and began placing the small metal disks he'd seen earlier in a pattern on one of the boxes. To his astonishment, the lights on the console began to blink in an erratic pattern as she added them, then slowly they started to blink out one by one until as the last one went out, the timer stopped with two seconds left on the clock.

Lee released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, then sucked in a lungful of air. "What are those?" he gasped, completely unable to grasp that she'd somehow stopped disaster.

"Rare earth magnets," Amanda sounded equally breathless. "They were for Phillips's science project. I thought maybe super strong magnets would screw up the computer programming in the disk drive. Guess it worked."

Lee gazed at her in astonishment. "You guess it worked?" He started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Get out and run away, he says" repeated Amanda in a scoffing tone.

"Thank God you never listen to me," he laughed, then laughed harder at her affronted expression.

* * *

 

Amanda and Francine had come to wave them off to Arizona. Billy had finally agreed that a three-thousand mile drive was going to require more than one driver and Efraim had been the only one willing to spend that amount of time cooped up with Lee for such a long drive.

Francine was shaking her head and laughing as they loaded their bags. "So what's the first thing you're going to ride at Wally World when you get there, Mr. Griswold?"

Efraim poked his head back out and grinned at her. "We're still looking for a hot blonde in a convertible, if you're interested in applying."

Francine glared at him through narrowed eyes. "You'd better not be taking any other applications."

"Pity you can't come," Lee remarked to Amanda. "There are some great golf courses in Phoenix. You could practice some of that stuff you were pretending to teach Standish."

Amanda looked puzzled. "Pretending? I gave him good advice – his stroke was way off until he did what I told him."

"Well, if you could see what he was doing so wrong, why were you playing so badly? You were everywhere on that course except the green."

"Because I was letting him win, of course," answered Amanda in a patient tone. "You weren't getting anything out of him by beating him, were you?"

Lee looked at her, nonplussed. "Oh come on, no one can play that badly on purpose!"

"Tell you what, when you come back, we can hit the course and I'll show you what I can do when I'm not trying to play badly. Loser has to buy dinner at Spencer's."

"You're on," said Lee readily. "Easiest dinner I've ever earned."

"Can I come too?" asked Francine. "I've played a bit in my time."

"Oh I'm not missing this," added Efraim from his perch leaning in the vehicle doorway. "Count me in, but now we gotta go. See you in a week." He leaned down to drop a quick kiss on Francine's upturned face.

Lee was still looking uncertain as he climbed into the RV. "Yeah, see you in a week." He paused and pointed a finger at Amanda. "And stay out of trouble!"

"Yes, Dear," answered Amanda demurely.

"No, really," he persisted.

"Don't I always do what you tell me?" she answered, her face the picture of wide-eyed innocence as he groaned. "I'll just brush up on my golf game so I can try and lower my handicap before you get back."

Lee looked at her suspiciously before finally pulling the door closed and heading for the driver's seat. As they pulled out of the Agency parking lot, Amanda and Francine gave them one final wave before turning to go back in the building.

"So you're a good golfer?" asked Francine.

"Captain of the University of Virginia ladies' team. We were top five every year I was there. You?"

"Practically grew up at my dad's country club. I was playing from the moment I was old enough to hold a putter."

There was a moment of satisfied silence and then Amanda asked, "Spencer's serves lobster right?"

"Oh yeah, and their champagne sorbet is to die for," replied Francine.

"I'll look forward to that," said Amanda happily.

 


End file.
